Exclusive: Top-level changes at Amazon India; social media firms and anti-deepfake tools

Amazon has started significant top-level restructuring of its India management team under vice president and country head Manish Tiwary.

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NPCI eyes big-size spends on RuPay UPI credit cards

Currently users split bills, pay their local vendors, taxi rides and retailers through UPI, the most popular smartphone-based payments mode in the country.

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Jack Ma returns to rally troops after Alibaba’s troubles deepen

“Every great company is born in a winter,” Ma wrote in response to a staff post. “The people willing to reform for the future, and the organizations willing to pay any price and sacrifice, are the ones that are truly respected.”

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Infra industry must work three shifts to complete projects: Narayana Murthy

In a fireside chat with Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath, Murthy said India needed to take quick decisions in infrastructure-related projects vis-à-vis China’s development.

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P2P companies log revenue jump, thanks to business partnerships

After years of slow growth and a fledgling business model, some P2P platforms have shown a strong uptick in business volumes mainly through their affiliate programmes, but will regulatory action make this short lived?

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Amazon's AWS appeals to corporate customers with new chatbot, AI safety measures

The new chatbot, called Q, is designed to help with productivity by helping workers summarize important documents and support tickets and chat via communication apps such as Slack, the company announced at its annual cloud computing conference Tuesday in Las Vegas.

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US Thanksgiving weekend sales hit record on big discounts, online boost

Online consumer spending jumped 7.8% during Cyber Week, or the five days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, according to data from Adobe Analytics, outstripping initial expectations for a  5.4% rise.

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Space-tech startup Agnikul to flight test 3D-printed engine by year-end

If successful, the startup incubated on the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras campus, will become India’s second private company to make a small satellite launch vehicle. The first one was Skyroot Aersospace, which launched the Vikram S in November 2022.

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Neeraj Chopra invests in OTT platform Stage

“My investment in Stage represents more than just a desire to rekindle the flames of our diverse regional dialects. We will embark on a journey together to reawaken dormant languages and empower every voice, ensuring that our cultural heritage thrives in its true form through this platform," Chopra said at a press meet held at his ancestral village of Khandra in Panipat.

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Sorin’s Sanjay Nayar teams up with Peak Ventures for cleantech play

Nayar is partnering with Peak Ventures – an early-stage firm focused on cleantech areas such as new energy, food systems, clean water and climate. Under the new arrangement, Nayar would become a general partner at the Mumbai-based firm.

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Elon Musk to meet Israeli leaders on Monday: report

During Musk's visit, before the war, about 200 people protested efforts by Netanyahu's right-wing government to curb the powers of Israeli courts. They gathered outside Tesla's California factory, where the meeting took place.

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Gensol Engineering to manufacture electric reverse trike

The vehicles with two wheels in the front and one in the back will be produced at a 30,000-unit-a-year facility at Chakan, Maharashtra

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Pentagon's AI initiatives accelerate hard decisions on lethal autonomous weapons

Pentagon is intent on fielding multiple thousands of relatively inexpensive, expendable AI-enabled autonomous vehicles by 2026 to keep pace with China.

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ETtech Opinion | Catalysing the Indian innovation ecosystem- the RISC-V way

India is at the forefront of enabling a new era of processor innovation with our own indigenous Digital India RISC-V (DIR-V) Program. RISC-V is a free and open Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) which could be used by startups and entrepreneurs across the world to build their own products and devices.

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Ministers group likely to discuss e-gaming on December 15

While the GoM has conducted “a couple of informal meetings” so far, the first official meeting is likely to set the tone for the process of regulating online gaming, with a specific focus on how to effectively tax the sector and avoid “any illegal gambling or betting, especially from off-shore players”.

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Ecommerce companies, brands line up for Black Friday rush

Online and offline markets in India are set to see sales growing by over 70% in the week of Black Friday this year when compared to business as usual (BAU) weeks, according to estimates from market research firm 1Lattice. In the US, Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving. It's the busiest shopping day of the year and marks the start of the Christmas shopping season. The sale typically gets extended to the following Monday, called Cyber Monday.

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Appario looks for a new way to keep selling on Amazon

Amazon and Patni Group, joint venture partners of Appario’s parent firm Frontizo, had in October last year announced plans to shut the seller entity within a year.

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Zomato, Swiggy want to clarify stance to DGGI on tax notice

Companies are expected to tell officials that delivery fees are not accounted for as revenue, but passed on to delivery workers and hence cannot be taxed.

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Businesses, tech groups warn EU against over-regulating AI foundation models

One of the biggest bones of contention is foundation models, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, which are AI systems that are trained on large sets of data, with the ability to learn from new data to perform a variety of tasks.

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Cert-In investigation into Apple's state-sponsored threat notifications nears conclusion

The probe found that there was “some vulnerability in Apple’s systems for a period during which several threat actors across the world tried to spread some virus on Apple devices”, the official said on condition of anonymity.

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OpenAI spat highlights perils of leaning on a single GenAI tool

The dependence on OpenAI explains why founders hugely invested in businesses dependent on OpenAI’s tech were extremely concerned.

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AI poster child Sam Altman back at OpenAI, may have fewer checks on power

OpenAI is bringing Altman back just days after his ouster as well as installing a revamped board that could bring sharper scrutiny to the startup at the heart of the AI boom, but strong support from investors including Microsoft may give Altman more leeway to commercialize the technology.

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Broadcom closes $69 billion VMware deal after China approval

The deal, one of the biggest globally when announced in May 2022, was the latest in CEO Hock Tan's efforts to boost the chipmaker's software business. However, the transaction faced tough regulatory scrutiny across the world and the companies had delayed the closing date three times.

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Social media sellers get ‘dislikes’ from I-T department

“Apart from the large ecommerce companies, we are closely monitoring the shops on Instagram and Facebook and have detected evasion to the tune of about Rs 10,000 crore,” a senior official told ET.

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Game on: Casters beat players in esports winnings

​Esports casters like Ocean Sharma, Varun John, Sudhen Wahengbam, Kaavya Karthikeyan and many others are being well rewarded as hosts of tournaments such as BGMI, Valorant, CS:GO and even making a mark internationally.

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Sam Altman, OpenAI board open talks to negotiate his possible return

Discussions are happening between Altman and at least one board member, Adam D’Angelo, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private and they may not come to fruition. The talks also involve some of OpenAI’s investors, who are also pushing for his reinstatement, one of the people said.

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What Google's multibillion payment to Apple says about privacy and power in tech

A valuation of default settings became clear in the current Google antitrust trial. During the trial, Google revealed that it paid $26.3 billion in 2021 to be the default search engine on various platforms, with a substantial portion of the money going to Apple.

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Data will show efforts to fight hate: X CEO Linda Yaccarino tells staff as advertisers flee

X, formerly Twitter, lost several major advertisers including IBM and Comcast, and owner Elon Musk was blasted by the White House after he agreed with a post on the platform Wednesday.

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Amazon business looking to offer multiple licence options at signup

Amazon Business is the B2B offering of Amazon India that provides its business customers with access to products with a GST invoice allowing them to take input tax credit. These customers also get business-exclusive deals and quantity discounts on products, as per its website.

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Sam Altman said to be discussing return to OpenAI with company's board

The discussions follow an outcry after Altman, 38, was ousted from his role as OpenAI's CEO a day earlier. Since then, OpenAI's investors and Altman's supporters have pressured the four board members of the startup to bring Altman back, six people with knowledge of the matter said.

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Tech provides the assist to find football’s uncut gems

Reliance Foundation is using ai.io’s talent discovery platform to produce a goal that lets Indian football emerge the winner.

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Meta breaks up its Responsible AI team

Meta Platforms has split its Responsible AI team that worked on understanding and preventing harms associated with the artificial intelligence technology it is developing

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ChatGPT maker OpenAI's board ousts CEO Sam Altman

OpenAI's chief technology officer Mira Murati will serve as interim CEO, the company said, adding that it will conduct a formal search for a permanent CEO.

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Lionsgate suspends all advertising on X: report

This comes after Elon Musk endorsed an antisemitic post on X that falsely claimed members of the Jewish community were stoking hatred against white people. ​​

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'Ridiculous' US lawsuit by Elon Musk's X Corp should be dismissed: hate speech watchdog

The Center for Countering Digital Hate also called the "ridiculous" and "baseless" lawsuit against them an attempt to silence others who say things X may not like. It also denied X's claim that commercial rivals and perhaps even foreign governments were funding its activities.

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People+ai readies blueprint for digital public infrastructure for open compute

people+ai, an initiative by EkStep Foundation—an organisation co-founded by Nandan Nilekani--is set to discuss a concept paper on ‘Digital Public Infrastructure for Open Compute’ next month at the Global Technology Summit in New Delhi.

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Amazon to sell Hyundai vehicles online starting in 2024

Customers will be able to shop for, equip and buy a car at Amazon and schedule delivery through a local Hyundai dealer, the companies said.

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OpenAI explores ways to get ChatGPT into classrooms

OpenAI's chief operating officer, Brad Lightcap, said at a conference in San Francisco that the company will form a team to explore educational applications of a technology that has threatened to upend industries, stoked new legislation and become a popular learning tool.

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How ready are Indian businesses for the AI era?

​​​Overall, according to to the Cisco AI Readiness Index 2023, only 26% of organisations in India are fully prepared to deploy and leverage AI – but this is higher than the global average of 14%. 42% are moderately prepared, 31% have limited preparedness, while 1% are unprepared.

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PayU eyes B2B pay, credit play under new top brass

From being an early player offering online payments to internet companies back in 2011, to facing severe competition from new-age startups such as Paytm and Razorpay, to a failed attempt to acquire Billdesk and facing a merchant acquisition embargo from the Reserve Bank of India, PayU has had a chequered history in India.

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Airbnb acquires AI startup GamePlanner

GamePlanner.AI was cofounded by Adam Cheyer, who was also one of the founders of Apple's voice assistant Siri.

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Social media firms must face lawsuits over harm to children: US judge

US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California ruled against Alphabet, which operates Google and YouTube; Meta Platforms, which operates Facebook; ByteDance, which operates TikTok; and Snap, which operates Snapchat.

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ETtech in-depth | Lacking bite and funding, online meat ecosystem returns to the drawing board

The potential from low online penetration and lack of organisation has seen marquee investors such as Temasek, Prosus, Tiger Global, 3one4 Capital and Amazon pour in over $1 billion in funding into the online meat sector, as per Tracxn.

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SaaS company Whatfix dragged to court by rival WalkMe

WalkMe has alleged that Whatfix, which is backed by SoftBank Vision Fund and Peak XV Partners (earlier Sequoia Capital India), gained unauthorised access to its systems, sought to interfere with its customer relationships, made misleading advertising claims about its products and used its design mark without permission

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China's Singles Day sales festival wraps up with ecommerce giants reporting sales growth

​​Originally a 24-hour online shopping event held on Nov. 11 each year in China, the 'Singles Day' festival - a nod to the digits in the date - has expanded into weeks of promotions across the country's major e-commerce platforms and in brick-and-mortar stores.

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Fact: check or mate? States embrace fact check units amid freedom of speech concerns

Different state governments are in the process of setting up fact check units to combat misinformation. But, can they be neutral and independent of state control? ET asks career fact checkers for answers!

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MIB to bring OTT, digital news under proposed new broadcasting services legislation

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has opened public consultation on the Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2023, designed to replace the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act of 1995. The proposed legislation aims to streamline regulatory processes, encompassing Over-The-Top (OTT) and digital news platforms, and update definitions and provisions for emerging technologies.

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Price wars during Chinese shopping fest expose consumer woes

This year's festival is being more closely watched than ever as a gauge of consumer confidence as China flirts with deflation and has identified boosting household demand as key to avoiding lost decades of sluggish growth.

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Companies rush for cyber insurance on data laws, digitisation

Generally higher claims and lack of strong IT systems for SMEs is causing insurers to be wary about offering these products actively.

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EU AI Act to serve as blueprint for global rules: lawmaker Brando Benifei

While several countries have been looking at ways to regulate AI, European lawmakers have taken a lead by drafting AI rules aimed at setting a global standard for a technology key to almost every industry and business. The draft rules could get approved by next month.

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Mutual funds are taking a shining to new-age stocks

An analysis of shareholding patterns of new-age firms such as Zomato, Paytm, Delhivery, Nykaa and PB Fintech, showed mutual funds have increased their holdings in several of these companies slowly but significantly over the last four quarters.

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Amazon begins layoffs in music streaming unit

Employees in Latin America, North America and Europe received notices that their jobs had been eliminated Wednesday, according to people familiar with the matter.

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EU to ask YouTube, TikTok for details on measures protecting minors

The new EU rules known as the Digital Services Act (DSA) requires Big Tech to do more to fight harmful and illegal online content, especially content that targets minors.

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Google's open culture collides with the Israel-Hamas war

In the month since Hamas launched an attack inside Israel, and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and invasion of the Gaza Strip, discussion of the topic at Google -- for Muslims and Jews -- has sunk into an morass of hostility and intolerance, employees say.

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Uber bets on holiday demand after dull third quarter

Uber is grappling with tough competition from Lyft, which has cut fares to gain customers as sticky inflation sparks worries about ride-share demand.

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Apple delays work on next year’s iPhone, Mac software to fix bugs

In a rare move, Apple Inc. hit pause on development of next year’s software updates for the iPhone, iPad, Mac and other devices so that it could root out glitches in the code.

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US consumer watchdog proposes rules for Big Tech payments, digital wallets

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's proposal would subject companies like Alphabet, Apple and PayPal to bank-like supervision, with CFPB examiners inspecting their privacy protections, executives' conduct, and compliance with laws barring unfair and deceptive practices.

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WeWork India says business not affected by US bankruptcy

The Chapter 11 filing will not impact WeWork India’s members and stakeholders, the company said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that it will continue to operate and serve members, landlords, and partners as usual.

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ChatGPT-maker OpenAI hosts its first big tech showcase as the AI startup faces growing competition

The path to OpenAI's debut DevDay has been an unusual one. Founded as a nonprofit research institute in 2015, it catapulted to worldwide fame just under a year ago with the release of a chatbot that's sparked excitement, fear and a push for international safeguards to guide AI's rapid advancement.

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Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd to hand over CEO role to Slack's Lidiane Jones

Jones is the CEO of Salesforce-owned Slack and has held senior business roles at Microsoft where she spent more than 12 years. She will take over on Jan. 2, while Wolfe Herd will remain executive chair.

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For financial services companies, India’s best market for tech talent: Morgan Stanley executive

India is currently the second largest location in terms of tech headcount outside the US for the multinational financial services firms, Michael Pizzi, managing director and head of US banks & technology at Morgan Stanley, told ET.

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Another Google antitrust battle reaches court in Epic Games case

On Monday, Epic Games, the company behind the hit game Fortnite, will appear in federal court in San Francisco to kick off a monthlong trial in its own antitrust lawsuit against Google. Epic is expected to argue that Google is violating both state and federal antitrust laws by wielding monopolistic power over app developers on its Google Play Store on Android mobile phones.

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Meta now lets creators publish Instant Games directly on Facebook

The company also said that it will change the way games are distributed across our organic discovery experiences.

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New Apple macOS update comes with a liquid detection feature

According to a report in 9to5Mac, macOS Sonoma 14.1 update includes a new system daemon called "liquiddetectiond," which can identify when the computer has been exposed to liquids.

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Viasat to lay off 800 employees post Inmarsat acquisition

Post-layoffs, Viasat will still have global operations with a majority of its employees continuing to be located in the US and the UK.

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Elon Musk teases AI chatbot 'Grok,' with real-time access to X

"Grok" comes from "Stranger in a Strange Land," a 1961 science fiction novel by Robert Heinlein, and means to understand something thoroughly and intuitively.

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Tech-ing Stock: India Mobile Congress 2023 showcases next-gen tech marvels

The India Mobile Congress 2023 saw large telcos and big companies, along with emerging startups, vie for attention with their innovations. ET took a walk across the floor, exploring all that the showcase had to offer and came away impressed at what the future has in store.

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Nazara eyes tax crisis-hit real money game companies

The RMG industry is facing a tax demand of more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore, after the government decided to levy a 28% GST on deposits made by users to play a game, instead of on the winnings.

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Explained | Sam Bankman-Fried's conviction: what's next?

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan has set Sam Bankman-Fried's sentencing for March 28, 2024. Bankman-Fried could face decades in prison. But what's next?

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The other crypto bosses in US authorities' crosshairs

Onetime crypto poster child Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty of defrauding customers of his now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, in a high-profile criminal case that rocked the industry. But he's not the only one in regulators' sights.

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Cross-border norms bring ePay companies directly under RBI watch

With regulatory clarity comes an opportunity to attract more venture money to tap into the burgeoning export-import market of a growing economy.

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British PM Rishi Sunak: new AI models to be tested before release

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday said that like-minded governments and artificial intelligence companies had reached agreement on testing new AI models before they were released.

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Midcaps brave IT winter better than big firms

Despite a few companies like Happiest Minds and Mphasis missing estimates due to wage hikes and sustained pressure on the BFSI segment, analysts see the midcap segment continuing to end the fiscal on a strong note.

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India clear about how to mitigate downsides of AI: MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar at AI summit

He presented his views on AI and policy surrounding the technology in a round-table discussion, “What should National Policymakers do?”.

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Britain to invest 300 million pounds in AI supercomputing

Britain said on Wednesday it would boost funding for two supercomputers which will support research into making advanced artificial intelligence models safe.

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